By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Moon Myong-ja (Julie Moon), a Korean American journalist, renowned for her interviews with the late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, died from a heart attack in Arlington, the U.S., last Monday. She was 78.
Moon, chief editorial writer of the U.S. Asian News, graduated from Meiji University in Japan and further studied international law at Waseda University there. After completing her studies in Japan, she went to the United States in 1961 and worked as a correspondent for Dong-a Ilbo, Chosun Ilbo, Kyunghyang Daily and MBC TV.
When working with MBC in 1973 under the Park Chung-hee regime, she first reported abduction of Kim Dae-joong. After the report, she sought refuge there. In 1974, she founded US Asian News and continued her career as a journalist.
Moon had an exclusive interview with the former North Korean leader in 1992 to mark his 80th birthday anniversary and made another exclusive interview with Kim's son, Kim Jong-il in 2000 right after the inter-Korean summit. She served as president of Association for Women Journalists in the U.S. and director-general of U.S. journalists association.